Betty Paine has no qualms about telling people how she fell "hook, line and sinker" for a scam that cost her $4,000. What she doesn't want is her grandson's name used, even though he had nothing to do with his 78-year-old grandmother getting ripped off. So in this story, we'll call the innocent grandson and the scam artist "Lyle."

When she picked up the phone at 9:58am on April 28–- Paine keeps meticulous notes–- the person on the line sounded like he had a very bad cold and was in distress.

The fake Lyle said he was in Canada, something Paine didn't find unusual because the real Lyle lives in Utah and takes frequent ski trips. The "grandson" wove a tale for Paine about going north with buddies who picked up some prostitutes, and the police kicked in their door and arrested them all, even Lyle, who was asleep.

Lyle then handed off the phone to someone who identified himself as "Constable Parker," who seconded the Lyle-in-jail tale–- and claimed Lyle was sick and throwing up.

The faux Lyle asked Paine to send money through MoneyGram International (because it was the safest way, he told her). "He begged me to not tell his parents," she says. "He wanted to tell them himself."

Concerned at the thought of Lyle sick and in jail, Paine raced up to Walmart and wired $4,000 to "Steve Yale," Lyle's alleged attorney in Kirkland, Quebec. Shortly after that, she got a phone call from "Mr. Pardini," who claimed to be with MoneyGram security and telling her that Lyle would be calling in two to three hours. The call never came, so Paine dialed the real Lyle.

"He picked up immediately at his job in Park City, and I knew I'd been duped," says Paine. "I'm the perfect patsy."

Paine, who worked for more than 42 years for the Charlottesville School Board, has since learned she's not the only one who's fallen for the "grandparent scam." Last year, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, American grandparents lost more than $4.5 million, with one grandmother bilked out of $19,000.

So far this year, there have been 818 attempts of what's also called the "emergency pitch," with 625 victims robbed of $2.17 million, according to the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre, a.k.a. Phonebusters, one of the few agencies tracking fraudulent phone schemes.

"No one thinks of Canada as home of fraud," says Steve Baker, the Federal Trade Commission's Midwest director and commissar of phone scams. "And even if they're caught and convicted, people rarely go to jail."

Just catching these cons is difficult. They may use stolen credit cards to buy a throw-away cell phone, says Baker. And if the victim is told to send money to, for instance, 123 Street in Toronto, the fraudsters can pick it up at any MoneyGram or Western Union location in the province.

The wire fraud business in Canada is so prevalent–- perhaps accounting for 80 percent of MoneyGram transactions in Canada last year–- that the company settled an FTC complaint last October by paying $18 million in damages and implementing new fraud-busting programs.

"They'd known about if for years," says Baker. "We alleged that about 10 percent of their Canadian agents are crooks or associates of crooks."

MoneyGram spokeswoman Lynda Michielutti doesn't mention the settlement in an interview, but she says the "person-in-need" scam is the third most popular wire fraud, after Internet fraud, such as buying a car or renting an apartment, and the lottery scam, in which victims are advised they've won a huge sum in a foreign lottery.

"The majority of our customers are immigrants," says Michielutti. "If you have a 90-year-old woman who's never used MoneyGram before trying to wire $3,000 to Canada, that's a red flag."

It wasn't enough of a red flag for the Charlottesville Walmart location of MoneyGram–- one of at least 15 local locations and 198,000 worldwide. Nor was Paine dissuaded by the printed warning on the front of the MoneyGram form.

Paine wonders how she was targeted, because her phone number is still in her late husband's name and she doesn't use social networking.

"Even if she isn't, her grandkids are," says the FTC's Baker. Other criminals look at recent obituaries, which provide a treasure trove of family names.

Reporting the grandparent scam can be tricky, as Paine discovered. She called the Albemarle police, which has limited out-of-area jurisdiction, and the FBI, which referred a reporter to the FTC.

"It's best to call us," agrees Baker, because the FTC keeps a database into which other law enforcement agencies are supposed to send their information. That number is 877-FTC-HELP, or victims can go to the website at FTC.gov.

Paine says she's been telling her story because she doesn't want anyone else to fall for the scam. And since she was swindled, Paine says she has heard of other local victims, including a woman, now deceased, at Lake Monticello, who lost over $3,000.

Albemarle Police Lieutenant Shawn Schwertfeger counts at least two other known victims of the scam and notes that at least 20 such attempts have failed, such as the woman who told Paine that she simply didn't have the money when the fake grandson called.

"The best thing to do is education," says Schwertfeger. "People need to be a little more conscious of this type of criminal activity."

"Most of us think we can tell if someone is lying to us," says the FTC's Baker. "You can't. These guys are professionals. They say, 'Don't tell mom and dad.' What kind of grandparent wouldn't help their grandchild?"

15 comments

boooo! June 1st, 2010 | 10:20am

I feel bad for her, and usually I don't feel bad for people who are scammed because the scams are usually pretty obvious to anybody with half a brain working. But this type of scam is something else. Pretending to be a grandkid in trouble, yikes. I can see how it works. People need to keep a levelhead about them if they ever find themselves on the receiving end of a "trouble" call like this. Simply asking a question that the grandchild (or whoever it is) should know the answer to would clear things up right off the bat. Very simple, yet very effective.

As far as email scams go, common sense says delete emails from anybody you don't know pertaining to any sort of money deal. They're all scams. Anybody you do know probably wouldn't solicit you for help via email anyway.

When it comes to phone call scams - if you don't know the person, then hang up, simple as that. The problem with a lot of elderly people is, let's face it - they're from a different generation, one that was more trusting and open, so for many elderly people they don't know how to just say no and hang up and be tough like that. It's not in their nature, they come from a time period when things moved slower, people were nicer, life was different and more connected and personable. I know because I've fielded calls from several eldery people at my job who realized after the fact that they may have been duped by phone. And you could tell by their voices that they were really up there in age, and things were a lot more slow with them. They weren't used to fast talking shenanigans and didn't have it in them to be tough and just hang up and end the call. It's unfortunate.

ken jamme May 28th, 2010 | 4:20pm

deleted by moderator.

Mer May 30th, 2010 | 10:37am

really? has clearly never dealt with the elderly

Sue Moneygram! May 30th, 2010 | 7:40am

The Federal Trade Commission has forced Moneygram to send checks to thousands of people defrauded this way--because Moneygram employees are often involved in the scam. And Moneygram knows that. Moneygram has known it all along. Contact a lawyer and sue the bejesus out of them. Here's an account of the FTC settlement: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/moneygram.shtm

really? May 30th, 2010 | 11:18am

Right because my 97 yo G maw has more common sense than that. Gimme a break.

really? May 30th, 2010 | 8:40am

deleted by moderator.

angry May 29th, 2010 | 11:57pm

I also fell for a scam and wired exactly $4,000 through Moneygram International from the convenience store beside Bodo's on The Corner!

I had just started using the internet. I was on some website when a beautiful woman in a bathing suit on a beach started up a conversation with me. Every few days for MONTHS she talked to me. And I mean like 6 months. She was in no hurry.

She lived in South Africa. Eventually, it was my idea, not hers, to send her money for a plane ticket. To make a long story short, she was actually the front for a big international scam run by men in another part of South Africa, and they were all in a room full of phones. I wired her as much as $4,000.

I contacted the FBI and even the police in Cape Town, South Africa. The police told me to drop the whole thing. They warned me that my life would be in danger if I went down to Cape Town to confront the people involved.

She sent me a couple of British phone numbers. She never showed up. I never got the money back. The local convenience store warned me that it sounded suspicious. I would never even give another person a penny now over the internet.

And I've had many women try to get money from me since then.

JJ Malloy May 28th, 2010 | 4:49pm

Pretty intelligent

ken jamme June 4th, 2010 | 8:40pm

Angry, you should write paperback novels, they wouldnt sell but you should write them anyway.

D.J. May 28th, 2010 | 11:38am

We all need to be careful to the nth degree. Unscrupulous persons pluck possessions from the dead, their widows, orphans, and others; then they walk among us, go to church, conduct their businesses, expecting to prosper. "They will enyoy their iniquity for a season,...but...then comes the judgment." Be careful upon whom you trod...we don't forget.

Kudos to Mrs. Paine for going forward to warn against another predator.

Not Quite a Victim

Mer May 28th, 2010 | 4:40pm

There are many different kinds of scams and the elderly are very susceptible. Recently, we've been getting phone calls from IAC Recovery Systems--a debt collection scam--and my 92 year old mother takes them seriously. My MIL fell for a Canadian lottery scam but the worker at Moneygram refused to send her $3K in cash. Thank you whoever you are. She would also send $ to any organization with the word "cancer" "police" or "firefighter" in it. We tried to tell her about Charity Navigator but she wouldn't listen. The police told us unless the scam ripped off more than $100K nothing would be done.

Mer May 30th, 2010 | 12:34pm

I knew you were going to say that

really? May 30th, 2010 | 3:28pm

You should join the psychic hot line. Madame Cleo could use you.

nbc29fan June 9th, 2010 | 11:11am

I'm thinking that Betty is actually making this up, and is trying to scam us in to sending her money for a plane ticket to Ghana.

jeezlouise June 9th, 2010 | 11:29am

"I’m thinking that Betty is actually making this up, and is trying to scam us in to sending her money for a plane ticket to Ghana."

So you are saying she is another Obama supporter looking for a handout? Shame on you!